The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Der Herr im Jordantal
- Chapter 243 -
The bad intentions of the Pharisees.
On this, the innkeeper said: "I also heard about that Man, and He would make me very happy if He would come to me, for if He is wiser and knows about all things more than anyone of us, then I could learn a lot from Him. If He is not, then I will listen to Him and will let Him go the way He came, and at most I will say to Him: Friend, if You are not wiser than that, you better stay home with Your teaching and earn Your bread honestly with Your hands. But as I have heard, your Galilean, although a Jew, must be extremely wise and powerful in miracles, and He would make me very happy if He would come to see me.
2
A lot of wise men lodged with me who besides their wisdom they also possessed much amazing power to perform wonders, and see, next to me sits at the table such wise Man who just arrived with His company today from the morning land. I kindly received Him and I will accommodate Him as long as He wants to stay with me. Do the same with your Galilean, then He certainly will never harm you. But if you persecute and hate Him, He also will persecute you, which I would also consider as completely justified. But preferably I am convinced that He will not persecute us Romans because we love and respect such awakened men. Did you understand that, my dear friend? Act accordingly, then you will have no enemies."
3
On this, the Pharisee said: "We Jerusalemites are also no enemies of highly learned and educated men, but we absolutely cannot use any learned and wise men who want to take away our bread and income, for it is even a basic principle of a Roman that one must live, but one should also let others live.
4
But if a wise man appears and makes us suspicious in front of the whole people, we cannot look upon the behavior of such wise man with indifferent eyes, and certainly not when that wise Man, as far as I heard, claims to be a Son of God, healing all kinds of sicknesses and attracting the whole people to himself with His miracles.
5
They say that He has been in Jerusalem several times, teaching in the temple and turning many thousands away from us by His words and deeds and they follow His teaching.
6
Well now, we Jerusalemites cannot look upon such things with indifferent eyes. But if He says that He is a Son of God, He clearly speaks against our Mosaic religion that accepts one God, for it is written in our law: 'You will only believe in the one, true God, and you will have no other gods besides Me.' But if He is a Son of God, we obviously have two gods. Then what can we do with such teaching that contradicts our ancient teaching of Moses?
7
You Romans allowed us to keep our ancient belief, but He wants to take that away from us and that is why we have a reason to persecute Him.
8
Apart from that, it is possible that He truly is a newly arisen great prophet, which has been the case several times among the Jews because the deity awakened men in the Spirit and they predicted to the people what they will have to expect if they neglect the laws of God. Promises were also given to the people if they would return to the ancient God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that God would once sent a Messiah to the Jewish people and deliver them from all kinds of slavery and hard oppression.
9
But that wise Man from Galilee is using that and He claims to be the promised Messiah. However, He was born in Nazareth in Galilee as a son of a carpenter, and we know that He practiced that profession with his father - who is dead now - and His brothers for almost 15 years. From where He received His wisdom and the power to perform miracles, we cannot know for sure.
10
Look, my dear friendly innkeeper, these are about the most important reasons why we persecute that Galilean. For he who wants to bring us to ruin, we also will bring to ruin, because we finally are stronger than Him and all His followers."